“This is yet another very audacious collaboration album which this time merges skillfully two visions and two eras in a solid electronic blend”
1 Mysteries of an Old Attic 13:41
2 Letter for an Unknown Woman 6:08
3 At the Horizon's Edge 12:12
4 Autumn's Last Moment's 5:17
5 Kaleidoscope of the Past 16:21
6 Lullaby for the Righteous 5:31
7 Goodbye, Edgar... 2:38
(CD 61:30) (V.F.)
(Mix of vintage and modern EM)
Imagine Snowflakes are Dancing (Children's Corner, No.4) by Isao Tomita, but interpreted with more spirit! It's a little bit this sensation that is going to orient your senses as soon as the synth will spread this melodious minimalist loop which opens Mysteries of an Old Attic. Cosmic elements come to kiss this melodic pattern which undulates like a rivulet shaken by its submarine countercurrents, while a heavy bass line hammers a kind of techno for Aliens with muffled and resonant pulsations. A shower of adjacent harmonies tumbles down on this intro with a chirping and charming synth which is going to take good care to put a delicate earworm at the bottom of our eardrums. Light and surprisingly musical for an album which offers pieces of music in constant movement, AT THE HORIZON'S EDGE is the meeting point between Przemyslaw Rudz and Mikolaj Hertel; a legendary Polish composer and musician recognized for his so very romantic and very melodious approach who wrote a lot of music in the 70's to the 90's. The idea behind this collaboration is to allow Przemyslaw Rudz to re-arrange the music of Hertel by affixing on it his seal and his boldness in a very contemporary approach. And both extremes live very well.
Percussions of a Bongo style are watering the vibes of Mysteries of an Old Attic while the synth embellishes them of some very harmonious solos. A bass line binds itself to this rhythm all the same rather static, propelling the music towards a more livened up approach where solos abound with an attractive acuteness. The track kisses then a pre- ambiospherical phase where the percussions and the bass line scatter a passive disorder while the synth always coos of its solos as much attractive as the singings of a nightingale at the top of its art. We dive a little farther into full ambiospherical gaps at around the 6th minute when a nervous line of bass is pounding in cosmic winds and industrial jingles. A long cosmic phase follows and separates both movements of Mysteries of an Old Attic which will find its almost identical rhythm of origin, rhythm and melody which will also be heard on the title-track, a little after the bar of 10 minutes. The soloing is simply delicious throughout this surprising duel between two styles and two eras. Przemyslaw Rudz takes up the challenge gallantly by giving to the entire of AT THE HORIZON'S EDGE a progressive and contemporary approach while protecting the innocence of the dreamy melodies of the 70's. And the following track shows it amply. A spherical movement of fluid sequences pours on another movement where sequences wander and cavort without a precise structure of rhythm. A delicate piano comes to cover this movement of ambivalent rhythm with a surprising meditative caress. Soft, romantic and very cosmic, Letter for an Unknown Woman is like these instants of nostalgia when we look through a window multicolored by rain tracks at moments of a past that we would like to relive. The piano, just like the synth and its solos to hybrid tones, is magical and draws a superb melody on a bed of shady sequences. The introduction of At the Horizon's Edge is ambio-cosmic, ambio-sonic before revisiting the part of the light rhythm in Mysteries of an Old Attic.
The approach is even tinted a little bit with a jazz and lounge touch. Autumn's Last Moment's is an ambient and melancholic track where rhythm and uncertain melody are bickering in a storm of synth solos. The piano mislays fragments of melodies here which are buried by the agile fingers of Przemyslaw Rudz. This is music for Love Story kind of movies. Kaleidoscope of the Past opens with a mi funk, mi hip-hop approach, and the synth is messing around with a very nasal harmonious tone on a rhythm which cavorts in cosmic mists. There also the envelope makes very cinema of the 70's. The harmonies are a little cherub with a synth which caws like a cybernetic duck. The introduction develops slowly, it's a little bit long, with a dense cosmic fog which covers a slow rhythmic raised up on a line of very vampiric bass which spreads its slow sneaky shadows. Little by little, Kaleidoscope of the Past mislays its introduction into a long ambiospherical phase which is of use for anchoring to a new start for a livelier rhythm. The percussions set the tone and forge a rhythm skipping like a graceful hip-hop and the bass line blows its long whoomz whoomz. It's very catchy, lively. The synth unwinds a mysterious wave while the percussions are doubling of enthusiasm in the furrows of sequences, as harmonious as rhythmic. Kaleidoscope of the Past drags us in its seductive structure of rhythm while the unknotted fingers of Rudz will draw chiseled solos which will make cabrioles on a deliciously funky rhythm. This fusion of rock and electronic cosmic dance ends on a wonderful slow dance in Lullaby for the Righteous and its synth as much suggestive as a saxophone ready to charm a beautiful unknown. The bass goes deep into the body with its languishing, almost erotic, palpitations. I liked it good! As much the effect of surprise as the slow and rather vicious melody. Goodbye, Edgar... is for you know who. It's soft, sober and very melancholic. The piano sheds its tears at the same time as we do. The most beautiful goodbye to Edgar that I heard. Thank you Edgar!
Thank you Przemyslaw Rudz and Mikolaj Hertel for a so beautiful album. Thank you for this audacious idea to unite two styles, two eras and two visions in an approach where everything melt and gets entangled without ever denying the right of the one on the other. It's by far the biggest strength of AT THE HORIZON'S EDGE where the romanticism of Hertel serves admirably well the sometimes very audacious vision, in particular for 3 long tracks, of Przemyslaw Rudz who restores to EM its letters of respectability by exploiting marvelously the synths with splendid solos which are real sonic fireworks in a universe where the rhythm is not made of banalities.
Sylvain Lupari (April 28th, 2015) *****
Available on Generator PL